May I briefly introduce myself - I am Marcus Calidius Gracchus, I ive in Ireland and I have only just joined S•V•R

My interest in Ancient Rome has been life long since childhood !

Anyway, I look forward to participating in a Roman organisation, in helping it grow and, of course, getting to know you all. Without wishing to sound too loty, I hope in some small way to be of help in the re-birth of Rome.

I suppose I should just also say that I was until rcently a member of Nova Roma (for some 5 years!) but I left having become totally disillusioned with that group. Having said that there are also some very good Romans in NR I hope one day to see them here. Certainly, all Romans wherever they are need to unite!

To paraphrase from a certain film "There was a dream that was Rome, it shall be realised."

Not to worry, we have lots of former Novaromani among us. We also have a number of Sodales who are members of both groups. It was really rather amusing, those first few years after we broke away: Someone on the NR Main List would mention the Societas; the boni (Senatorial sticks-in-the-mud) would get their togae in a twist, with magistrates trying to promulgate decrees forbidding "dual citizenship", or at least holding office in both groups; a few of our joint members would stand up and gently remind everyone that we are not a micronation and therefore not "The Competition"; and once the dust settled we'd get a double-handful of visitors wandering over from NR just to see what all the fuss was about. These have generally been our most productive people! I don't know if the Main List still grants us free "airtime" in that fashion, but while it did, it was one of our more effective forms of advertising. >({|;-)

Are you in Ireland, or in Northern Ireland...? I want to be sure before I color in the map.

I wholly concur with you on the need and desireability for Romani all over to become acquainted with, or at the very least aware of, each other, whether in groups or individually. I've written quite a bit about this in the Comitia, among other places, and I launched two new sections of the Board because of it. Roman Gatherings is exactly that; if you are aware of any Roman get-togethers--be they a neighborhood Gladiator movie night, a Latin-League conventus, or something formal and elaborate like Roman Days, you are encouraged to post an announcement there.

The other one, in the General forum, is a topic called "On the Roman Web". If you have a favorite Roman-themed site, blog or bulletin-board, by all means send us thither!

The Societas Via Romana was originally envisioned as an educational institution, hence our division into collegia. We have not evolved as far in that direction as we would have liked, nor do we really have the Roman-by-immersion feel that Nova Roma does. But we beat the braccae (and the tibialia too!) off of almost anybody as a knowledgeable yet friendly place for discussion, and for sharing what Rome has come to mean for each of us in our own lives. Other Boards have more scholars. We have Romans-in-Spirit, and Seekers who would like to become same.

Welcome, mi Gracche, to the Societas! I hope you enjoy it here as much as I have! >({|:-)

Marcus Calidius? That name sounds familiar. Perhaps I've seen you already in Nova Roma. If so, you must have been the very last Nova Roman in Ireland. Well, I already explained some things to Caeus, our other recent arrival, so I won't go into those things again. Five years, eh? You must have come upon Nova Roma after some of us left in March 2001. Hortensia Maior is a close associate of mine in Nova Roma. I was the one who (surprisingly) successfully argued before the Collegium Pontificum to remove their decree declairing her nefas. An utterly ridiculous affair. But then there has been many such occurances there. I suppose the closest we have ever come to that sort of thing in SVR was when we began chiding certain Sodales as being the LATIN INQUISITION! In good humor as we appreciate our Sodales having their Latin correct.

Welcome to SVR. I can do little to add to the lengthy explanations of Piscinus and Marius, but if there's anything you need to know about SVR, you can always ask me, since I've been around here pretty much since the beginning .

May I sincerely thank you all for your very warm welcome to SOCIETAS VIA ROMANA and, at once, apologise for the great delay in replying. I suppose I have spent the intervening period essentially re-evaluating, reappraising and re-examining my NR experience. That is now complete.

Honourable Legate PEREGRINVS my thanks to you too and just to aid you with your map, I'm to be found in Northern Ireland! As it happens I do have a few favourite Roman websites which I sure you are all aquainted with VIZ. Lacus Curtius and Forum Romanum which I find invaluable repositories of knowledge for those who wish to learn about all things Roman. I hope you don't mind my observing you to be most illustrious, a man who has served Rome well so that is NR's sad loss.

Yes, SENATOR PISCINVS, I think my departure from NOVA ROMA probably did remove one of the last NOVA ROMA CIVES from Ireland at least I notice recently the NR HIBERNIA PROVINCIA Yahoo Group is all spammed out with no genuine activity! I may say that your name is also not completely unfamiliar to me. I certainly know HORTENSIA MAOIR. I certainly agree NOVA ROMA holds out much potential but simply fails to deliver in many ways. I to, perhaps, elucidate on this a little further on the NR ex pats thread but hopefully in a constructive way. Anyway, thanks also for your generous welcome.

I've been haunting this site, one of my original favorites, since...whoa. It's been around longer than the Outpost, and I launched that in 1995. You will find links to individual articles all over the Forum, the one for the ancient Feriae Latinae among them; and it *is* linked from the Societas' Web site, Collegium Historicum's Links section (Phew!).

But someone will have to point *me* at Forum Romanum; I've heard of several sites and Boards by that name, and may even have it bookmarked as something else; or maybe it'll be new to me too--JOY!! In any event, I'd like to see it and share it.

Et, mi Calidi...gratias tibi ago for your post; it was my shot-in-the-arm of Romanitas for the day. (Ita, even old Mari needs to be recharged once or twice a decade.) >({|:-)

Honourable MARIVS, the partcular 'Forum Romanum' to which I refer is located at the following website: www.forumromanum.org - perhaps, you already know of it? Well, worth a visit.

I find it a very useful resource for Roman history, for example, the conflict between SVLLA and your namesake MARIVS or the events and issues lead up to the conflict between th Senate and my namesake the GRACCHI.

Thanks for your compliment honourable IOHANNES on my choice of Avatar, suitably Roman I thought although I must however share the laurel wreath with SVR as I picked it from the list of those offered.

Yup, that was one of my submissions, from when I was a just-plain-Sodalis. It was actually uploaded by Tiberius Dionysius Draco; he was our Aedilis (Webmaster) at the time, and between us we scared up most of the images now in the Avatar gallery. Gracchus' avvie is in the Military section; there are also a General and a Personal gallery (the Personal ones are those that are strongly associated with our more prominent Sodales).

The original painting was by a fellow named Bleskine (sorry I don't have his first name, but he's done a whole series of Roman Army illustrations). I bought a T-shirt with this particular image on it from Terry Nix's "Nix Imperial Arts" in Houston. He also does stunning replicas of Roman armor, weapons and other military paraphernalia, most notably a Legion's Eagle. WANT!!!

Salve, Calidie. As a new citizen and now new flamen minor at Nova Roma, I'd love to hear ways which Nova Roma failed you in your opinion in the ex-pat thread. Criticism is the healthiest thing for any organization.

Salve iterum, mi Calidi, et Salvete omnes!> ...the conflict between SVLLA and your namesake MARIVS...One of the sadder aspects of my tenure was that, for the first year and a half I was there, NR's L Cornelius Sulla and I were close; I flew out to see him in California in 1999; we were even in the same faction. Many Cives thought this highly symbolic of NR's promise, and the lessons learned from the old Republic's mistakes; "In the New Rome, Marius and Sulla are friends." L Cornelius' about-face after he became consul suffectus I am still at a loss to explain, from either my fragmented memory or the archives.> ...or the events and issues lead up to the conflict between the Senate and my namesake the GRACCHI. I have a miniseries of...not articles, exactly, but ponderings on this very subject. They're in the Web site's Collegium Historicum, Essay section. We can talk about 'em afterwards if you are so inspired. >({|:-)

Yes, SVLLA at one time became very prominent within NOVA ROMA serving as you say as CONSVL but I think ill health and other macronational circumstances saw his participation gradually dwindle.

I will speak honestly and say I found SVLLA a dedicated and hard working Roman but his posts could be quite acidic and I personally found it hard to warm to him at times. When NOVA ROMA turned its usual trick and turned on him, I actually found myself leaping to his defence if only to ensure the lynch mob did not completely have its way. As for your experience of him, honourable MARIVS, perhaps, the change you describe was a case of power corrupting, absolute power corrupting absolutely!

As for a discussion on the GRACCHI, I would be delighted to discuss their merits / demerits, legacy, implications - as you may have guessed I am an admirer of theirs and what they tried to achieve and chose the cognomen GRACCHVS very deliberately.

Honourable POPLICOLA, I will indeed enter on the NOVA ROMA expats thread and elucidate my experiences there, its undoubted shortcomings and what constructively they need to change but that is not for tonight, AMICVS, for the hour is late, the lamp is dimming and the DOMVS is still, moonlight streaming through the ATRIVM and garden. I will write there soon.

It occurs to me, honourable MARIVS, that as SVLLA was your close friend, I may have unintentionally offended, in proffering my honestly held observations of him. I sincerely hope I have not done so nor may I say do I wish to denegrate SVLLA himself. Who knows, perhaps, he or others might have some home truths for me!

Salve iterum, care Calidi!> It occurs to me, honourable MARIVS, that as SVLLA was your close friend, I may have unintentionally> offended, in proffering my honestly held observations of him.Key word: was, commilito. The worm turned. I've proffered a few choice utterances of my own about that individual, and awarded him a few extra agnomina--most of which would not make it through the Board's word-filters nowadays. (I was in fine form when I set those up; they'll even stop Marius-on-a-tear now.) >({|;-P

In seriousness, though: Honestly-held observations, about anything at all, are valued and welcome here. Our one great strength as a Society is that we know we can talk to one another--sometimes deeply, sometimes frankly, but always with sincerity as Romans among friends.

Sulla dropped out rather abruptly as I remember. I was already gone, but still kept in touch with him by email some.

Then, he vanished abruptly. Not just from NR,but from the world it seems.
Would someone as involved as he just drop out? I can't believe it myself.
My guess, {and it is only a guess} is that he had a debilitating stroke or something like that, or maybe even died. I cannot imagine anything less to keep him away from his life {and NR was his life} so long.

I have been meaning to write for some time on the point of SVLLA's disappearance.

It is to state a simple wish and that is to say that I sincerely hope that no ill fate has indeed befallen honourable SVLLA. His dedication to Rome through NR was undoubted and that, as you say, makes his absence all the more concerning.

Although, there were many times that I did not with his point of view or, indeed, the manner in which he sometimes conducted himself, I am sure we'd all hope that he is well.